Diana

In preparing to write this post I looked at a lot of Diana pictures. A lot of Diana pictures, and I discovered something kind of awesome, especially when you’re preparing to make up pretend outfits that she might wear. She wore everthing. Initially she was a bit timid, not taking a lot of chances. She wore a lot of seemingly matronly suits (she was only 19 when she became engaged you’ll remember) and everything was appropriate and fashionable for the time and her psotion.

But, as she grew up and became, you know, a princess and perhaps the biggest celebrity on the planet, you can really see her develop a fearless fashion sense. She wore colour, she wore neutrals, she showed her legs, she covered up, she went strapless, and body hugging, and ethereal. She dropped her kids at school in jeans and sweaters and went to international events in gowns worthy of a fairytale. She managed to play with all these looks, always staying elegant and classy not going over the top, while clearly having fun. The only thing she didn’t seem to wear was something that looked bad on her. What that might have been, I’m not really sure.*

Now, of course, she was born an aristocrat and became a princess and was the most photographed woman of all time. Also, she was by all accounts quite shy and painfully self-conscious, even though she was this huge public figure. These are things that might contribute to one having a better than average sense of style and taking care to never look like crap; it’s no surprise that we never saw her in anything completely bat shit crazy. What is surprising is that, unlike most other humans, not only did she never look just awful, she almost always looked just great.

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So, what to do if Lady Di is your ultimate style icon? For as complicated a woman as she was, with such a complicated life, her approach to style can be broken down quite simply. To emulate Diana you should wear, not what she would wear, but what looks great on you. Play with trend, and fit and style. Try all the colours of the rainbow and have fun. But don’t you dare ever wear something that looks bad! It seems daunting, I know, but it’s not. It’s so simple if you think about it. Stop buying things that look ‘ok’ because they’re on sale. Don’t wear a velour jumpsuit just because you saw one in Vogue. If that sweater your mother in law got you washes you out return it. Vow to only wear things that look great. Simple.

Just for fun though, and in keeping with our awesome ‘imagine you’re the celebrity’ format, here are some Diana inspired looks.